And now here they are again, required to chase away the Grim Reaper of the American Hockey League one more time in order to keep playing.

This time their opponent is in the same boat. The Amerks and Chicago Wolves will play the deciding fifth game of their opening-round Calder Cup playoff series at 4 p.m. Sunday at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.

The winner moves on to the Western Conference semifinals. The loser puts away the equipment and heads home for summer.

"There's a lot of character in that room," Amerks coach Chadd Cassidy said. "When our backs are against the wall, we seem to get the most out of our guys."

The Amerks showed that when facing elimination on Friday. Shut out 4-0 on Thursday when they offered little resistance in Game 3, and facing elimination, the Amerks routed the Wolves 7-2.

They scored twice in the first 99 seconds and made it very clear they would be all business. It was the first time Chicago allowed seven playoff goals in an AHL game (a 124-game history).

It was the first time since 2004 that the Amerks won an elimination game.

"We all knew we didn't play our game on Thursday," said right winger Brayden Irwin, who scored a pair of goals Friday. "The thing about the playoffs, you just have to put everything behind you and worry about the next game, whether it's a win or a loss."

The bounce-back effort of Friday has pretty much been the norm for this team. Some examples of winning when they seemed doomed:

• Jan. 3 at Utica. The Amerks returned from the Spengler Cup in Switzerland and had just six of their 12 regular forwards in the lineup. They had just one day of rest after a 25-hour travel day and the hockey department was scrambling to find players to fill the lineup. They won 5-2.

• Jan. 17 at Oklahoma City. Two nights earlier they were outshot 41-15 through two periods en route to a 4-1 road loss to the Texas Stars. If not for goalie Nathan Lieuwen, the score could have been 9-1. But they rebounded with a 4-3 win over the Barons. It was the start of a seven-game winning streak that included a 4-1 blitzing of the Wolves in Rochester on Jan. 29.

• April 5 at Toronto. The Amerks trailed 3-0 after two periods and, if they lost, would have fallen to 10th in the conference playoff chase. They completed the most improbable of rallies in the third period. Tim Schaller scored three goals, the last at 19:02 to tie the score, and then Phil Varone won it with goal 15 seconds later.

The more dire the outlook, the better they seem to perform.

"That's what I expect Sunday," center Kevin Porter said.

The Amerks won't have right winger Jamie Tardif. He re-injured his knee in the first period and is out indefinitely. Irwin took his place and scored two goals.

"You need guys to step up when they get that opportunity, we've talked about it all year," Cassidy said. "Brayden has been in that role before when we had injuries and callups so he was able to fill in very well."

There's a very good chance winger Dan Catenacci will return to the lineup Sunday. He suffered an upper body injury in Game 1 on April 25 and didn't even fly to Chicago with the team. But he headed there Saturday.

If the Amerks win, they'll stay on the road and head directly to Cedar Park, Texas. The second-round series against the Texas Stars would be best-of-seven, and use a 2-3-2 format. Game 1 could start sometime around Wednesday, and the three home games (Games 3, 4 and 5) likely would be during the week of May 12-18.